Who pays if a person doesn't have health insurance?

[JohnnyRingo]

Many times, no one pays.

I recall when first I heard an old friend Linda had cancer. I'd lost touch for some years after she and her husband Bob divorced, but knew she had a decent job at a local rubber injection mold plant. She was doing alright holding her head above water for several years as she struggled to raise her two young sons.

The sad news that she had been on sick leave came to me when I heard the plant was shutting down and laying off the entire work force. I found that while she was on sick leave she was keeping the cancer at bay with regular chemo treatments, but when the factory closed she lost her health insurance. Faced with both a health and money crisis at the same time, she discovered that no insurance company would take on her problems. Linda had a terminal pre-existing condition that no company would touch.

Faced with the weighty decision to sell her home and continue the treatments that were at best just keeping her alive, she expressed concern that her illness would take from her sons the very things she worked all her 40 years to obtain. That may have been the depressive feelings of someone who felt she had been herded into a cul-de-sac of hopelessness, but she made what she felt was her only choice. Linda gave up and let the cancer win the fight.

It's been two years now since she left us and the two young teenage boys who loved her so, but while watching the debate a couple nights ago I wish the Republicans had a phone number for all those groups that love to take over when someone has no insurance. I wish Ron Paul had talked to her about personal responsibility and the risks she took when her insurance ran out.

Screw each and every one of them on that stage Monday.

[The Genealogist]

1. Sad story...I cringe to think of the number of Lindas out there

A nation with the resources this one has, and people still die like this. People even cheer such deaths on now, on national television. Disgusting.

[kestrel91316]

2. If there is no one to pay, if they aren't eligible for care under the county,

then they simply do without and die. Literally.

But thank heaven no one other than the sick person had to pay.

[truedelphi]

3. Especially tragic, as her work at the rubber injection mold plant might

Have been the cause of her illness.

Whoever has guardianship of her two boys should get a lawyer to look into it.

Some specific cancers have very specific causes, and I think that someone else probably has brought about a similar lawsuit.

My heart goes out to you for the loss of your friend, and to your friend, for the awful despair she must have faced in her last days.

[JohnnyRingo]

6. Unfortunately, Johnson Rubber went bankrupt.

Assets were divvied up and distributed to creditors.
I don't know if there's a class action suit or govt program that may help her heirs. Likely, they'll tell them they have too much money now that Linda bequethed them the equity in her home.

The boys still have their father, thank goodness.

[hamsterjill]

4. Well, *I* want my tax dollars helping the Linda's of the world.

I'd much rather my tax dollars help the Linda's of the world as opposed to killing people in senseless wars. That's morality as far as I'm concerned.

Letting someone die when we, as a people - as a NATION have the ability to do otherwise is simply unacceptable.

[dtexdem]

5. We all do. If the person is treated, we all pay.

If the person is untreated and spreads disease, becomes debilitated, dies, and so on, society pays.

[seabeyond]

7. i would rather pay it thru our govt with taxes than the hospitals that through the cost

into everyone price. that is for sure. trust the govt tons more.

[JohnnyRingo]

9. Linda's story debunks the Republican theory that emergency rooms are health care.

Needless to say, she couldn't go to the hospital and demand they take over her expensive chemo treatments for free. She owned a home and was considered self sufficient until she sold it and spent that money. Linda thought that was stealing from her children.

Sure, taxpayers pay for gunshot wounds at the emergency room if the victim is uninsured, but outpatient treatment for terminal illness is not an "emergency".

[GoCubsGo]

10. And, one thing people don't realize...

If a hospital treats an indigent person, the bills get rolled into every other patient's bills. That even holds true for non-profits. They have to pay for the nurses, doctors, drugs and other supplies to treat this person somehow. They pass the costs onto the customers and their insurance companies, who then raise their prices again...

[mainer]

8. Hospitals sometimes eat the costs -- which affects others' bills

The large number of uninsured patients who can never pay their bills means hospitals must make up for the charity care by charging large fees to those patients who actually do try to pay out of pocket. (Health insurers get a lower rate negotiated with the hospital.)

It is illegal for a hospital to turn away a seriously ill patient.

[JohnnyRingo]

11. Cancer treatment is not an "emergency"

Chainsaw accidents, sure, but outpatient services that give the terminally ill another day is not an option in the emergency room.

[unblock]

12. never ask for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.

if we save money by heartlessly permitting those around us to suffer and die when the resources to ease their pain, extend their lives, and perhaps even cure what ails them, then we are ALL made to suffer by forcing us to live in a society that doesn't live up to its potential.

we are all diminished by this callous indifference to medical need. the pennies we save cannot come close to fair compensation for the damage done to all of us.

[Uncle Joe]

13. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, JohnnyRingo.

[bvar22]

14. K&R

"Medical Bankruptcy" is a term unknown in the civilized WORLD.
Even after ALL the provisions of the "historic" Health Insurance "Reform" kick in,
Medical Bankruptcy will STILL be BIG BUSINESS in the USA,
perhaps even BIGGER as 40 - 70 MILLION Americans are forced into "The Exchange",
and try to use their JUNK Insurance Policies.

How many in the "Exchange" will be able to come up with the 20% Co-Pay for a serious illness or accident?
How many Americans beyond the top 5% can meet the Co-Pay for a catastrophic illness or accident without selling EVERYTHING they have worked their entire LIFE to obtain?

With the exception of a handful in the Progressive Caucus, our Politicians ("Centrist Democrats & Republicans) have told Americans
that WE will just have to settle for Far Less than what is taken for granted in the civilized World.


You will know them by their WORKS,
not by their excuses.

Solidarity!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------